One of the difficulties in determining constituent trends from the ER-2 flight data is the large amount of day to day variability generated by the motion of the polar vortex. To reduce this variability, the observations have been transformed into the conservative (Lagrangian) reference frames consisting of the coordinate pairs, potential temperature (PT) and potential vorticity (PV), or PT and N2O. The requirement of only two independent coordinates rests on the assumption that constituent distributions and their chemical processes are nearly zonal in that coordinate system. Flight data is used everywhere for these transformation except for potential vorticity. Potential vorticity is determined from level flight segments, and NMC PV values during flight dives and takeoffs are combined with flight data in a smooth fashion.
The evolution of AAOE observed constituents with the polar vortex
1988-05-01
Conference paper
No indication
English
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